6.
I was awoken to sunlight streaming through the open balcony door, strange, hadn't we left that shut? It was then that I actually got a good look at the room around me, it was completely trashed and yet nothing appeared to be missing. I leapt out of the bed, causing Fang to awake instantly and raced towards the door, yanking it open and banging on the flock's doors.
"Guys!" I yelled, "Open the doors, now!" Neither of them opened and I began to panic. Fang appeared at my side, and with only a shared glance we each delivered a well placed kick to each of the doors, sending them flying into the destroyed rooms. I raced into the girls rooms, blood covered the floor and the furniture was broken; Nudge lay in the middle of the floor, beaten and clearly unconscious, but alive. Angel was gone, I'd known it the second that I'd stepped through the door, and, resisting the urge to cry I knelt next to Nudge; quickly waking her and helping her to her feet before the two of us headed into the guys room. Fang was alone in the room, the boys weren't there. Which could only mean one thing. Itex had Angel, The Gasman and Iggy; and we had no clue where.
"I'm so sorry, Max. I shouldn't have let them take her, I tried so hard." Nudge said before breaking down crying. I held her to me, comforting her whilst resisting the urge to join her in tears. Fang paused as the two of us fell to our knees and I rocked Nudge slowly, and then hesitantly kneeled next us, wrapping his arms around us both.
"I'm so sorry." Nudge sobbed again, and I pulled her away from me so I could look her in the eyes.
"Nudge, sweetie, none of this is your fault, okay? Everything's going to be okay, we're going to pack up and head out, and we're going to find them, okay?" I said, not quite sure who I was trying to reassure, the twelve-year-old mutant in my arms or myself. She nodded and her tears stopped slowly. Once I was sure that she was okay, I stood.
"How do you feel? You're pretty beaten up." I said, she looked at me, her beautiful brown eyes full of determination.
"I feel ready to get my family back. I feel ready for a fight. No, I feel ready to win a fight." She said, and I grinned. 'That's my girl' I thought to myself.
"Right, grab your stuff, I'll go and pack mine and Fang's stuff; Fang, stay here and watch her, then come through when the two of you are ready." I ordered before heading out of the room and across the hall. Mine and Fang's backpacks were leaning against the near the window of the hotel, I quickly grabbed our odd belonging that was lying around the room, some food and bottled water from the fridge and then my jacket. It was as I picked my jacket up that a white envelope fell from the chair. Confused, I bent down to pick it up and- seeing it was addressed to me- quickly checked for bombs before opening it. Inside there was three pictures of a huge, grey building. A building that I dimly recognised. It took me a couple of seconds to place it, all of my childhood memories had been repressed, and for good reason. It was a building similar to the school, by the name of Manticore; I'd been taken there for a while when I was ten, they ran similar tests to the school, only with me they got a lot more violent. Some of the other experiments there had said- when we'd compared life stories- that they'd been treated relatively well, with jail cells instead of cages and daily food and water. Their tests weren't too bad, and I could only hope that the same would go for my flock, this was obviously the place that the voice had meant.
"Max? Are you okay? Fang and I are ready to go." I heard Nudge's voice say, I nodded, discreetly shoving the pieces of paper in my pocket. I grabbed my jacket and threw Fang's backpack and jacket at him before opening the window. Nudge took off first, then me and then finally, Fang. 'Be strong guys.' I thought to the missing members of my flock. 'We're coming for you.'